Afghan Biographies

Afghan Gold and Minerals Company

Name

Afghan Gold and Minerals Company

Ethnic backgr.

Date of birth

Function/Grade

Background Balkhab Copper Mine

History and Biodata

Afghan Gold and MineralsCompany (AGMC) has been named preferred bidder for the Balkhab copper exploration licence northwest of the capital Kabul, one of three gold and copper exploration licences opened for tender a year ago by the Afghan government.

Afghan Gold and Minerals will have copper explorations rights over the Balkhab, northwest of the capital Kabul in Sar-I-Pol and Balkh Provinces. Exploration Licence Area(s): 210 km2 and 247km2

The company already has a gold property, which is close to start production.(20121217)

The Afghan government has awarded the license to develop a large copper deposit in the country's north to international consortium Afghan Gold and Minerals Company Ltd.

The Balkhab license area, which covers 500 square kilometers, is believed to contain more than 100 millions tons of copper and equivalents.

The chairman of AGMC, Sadat Naderi, said that winning the government tender likely makes the company the largest mining group in the country.

Production is not expected to start for at least 18 months.(20140114)

In May 2013, the "Mining Journal" online described Afghan Gold and Minerals Company as "a consortium backed by City of London banker Ian Hannam, former BHP Billiton chief executive Chip Goodyear, Jan Kulczyk and Sadat Naderi."

AGMC won the tender to develop the Balkhab copper project, while its joint venture, the Turkish-Afghan Mining Company, won the tender to develop the Badakhshan gold project in mountainous terrain in northern Afghanistan.

AGMC is already developing a gold project in Baghlan Province that is close to production.

Afghan Gold and Minerals is a consortium backed by City of London banker Ian Hannam, former BHP Billiton chief executive Chip Goodyear, Jan Kulczyk and Sadat Naderi. It is a gold and copper exploration company focused in Afghanistan and Turkey.

Background:
Afghan Gold and Minerals a consortium backed by City of London banker Ian Hannam, former BHP Billiton chief executive Chip Goodyear and Jan Kulczyk, Poland’s richest man, has emerged as a winner in the latest licensing round for mining permits in war-torn Afghanistan.

Last year Polish billionaire Jan Kulczyk took a 28 per cent stake in Centar, which is headed by Ian Hannam, the SAS veteran who left JPMorgan Cazenove in April. Chip Goodyear, chief executive of BHP Billiton until 2007, is also a shareholder.

Founded by Hannam in 2010, AGMC is run by former SAS commander Richard Williams. It is 51 per cent-owned by an Afghan consortium led by local businessman Sadat Naderi, with the rest held by Centar, a Guernsey-based mining company headed by Hannam and backed by US and British investors.

Afghan Gold and Minerals has been named preferred bidder for the Balkhab copper exploration licence northwest of the capital Kabul, one of three gold and copper exploration licences opened for tender a year ago by the Afghan government.

The company also holds a 49 per cent stake in TMAC, another joint venture that has been declared preferred bidder for the Badakhshan gold concession in the licensing round and which is backed by Yildizlar, Turkey’s largest mining company.

Afghan Gold and Minerals is 51 per cent owned by local businessman Sadat Naderi, with the remainder held by a vehicle created by Guernsey-based investment group Centar. The vehicle was created by Ian Hannam, the former JPMorgan banker. The joint venture has already won a gold mining licence in Afghanistan that is close to production, according to Mr Naderi.

Balkhab Districtis a district of Sar-e Pol Province, Afghanistan. The district seat lies at Balkhab,also known as Tarkhoj. Coal is mined in the area.A massive copper deposit is also located in Balkhab district of Sar-e pol province, the new copper discovery is bigger than the current Aynak Ainak copper deposit in Logar province, southeast of Kabul, according to a GSA report. It is valued at billions of U.S. dollars and one of the biggest untapped copper mines in Afghanistan. The discovery appears to be a volcano genetic massive sulfide deposit -- a deposit type which could supply much of the world’s gold, copper, lead and zinc.

The Balkhab Copper Mine is located in the Sar-e-Pul and Balkh Provinces in north central Afghanistan, approximately 130 km south-west of Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province. There is evidence of mineral extraction activities at Balkhab going back almost 3,000 years, likely to have been continuous mining of copper via surface and underground workings.

The copper mine is of Volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposit (VMS), modern exploration was conducted during 1966-1972, consisting of mapping, trench and surface grab sampling and analysis. Recent work on the Balkhab copper prospect was initiated by the Afghan Geological Survey (AGS), at the request of villagers in the region. A reconnaissance sampling mission was carried out in 2008 by the Ministry of Mines. The Balkhab copper deposit could be as high as 150 million tonnes.

Road access to the site is from Mazar-i-Sharif, and the area has the potential to benefit from the proposed rail link connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan. The Chaman-Kandahar-Logar province line is proposed to pass just east of the project area with a station planned at near-by town Ghazni. The closest power source identified is at Mazar-i-Sharif which is connected to the North East Power System main isolated grid. The main water source for the project is the significant stream, Rode Balkhab, which splits the licence area.

The Government of Afghanistan, through the Ministry of Mines, announced the opening of tender processes for the exploration and subsequent exploitation of the mine on 6 December 2011. The tender process for the Project is expected to culminate in the granting of a mining agreement with associated exploration licence(s) and, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, will lead to the granting of the requisite exploitation licence(s). Canaccord Genuity, SRK Consulting and Mayer Brown are acting as transaction advisers to the Ministry in relation to the tenders for the Projects. The deadline for submission of bids for the Balkhab mineral tender was 23 July 2012.

To ensure transparency and fair and open competition, bids for the mine were opened publicly by junior ministerial officers with bid-company representatives in attendance. The council’s evaluation of bids for Balkhab, were observed by transaction advisors and third party transparency advisers. On 26 November 2012, preferred bidders were selected to undertake the exploration and subsequent exploitation of the current mineral tenders. The selection of the preferred bidder for Balkhab follows an extensive process since launch in December 2011, An announcement of the winner for the mine was announce on 31 December 2012 with Preferred bidders and reserve bidders were selected for the mineral tender. The preferred bidder for the mine was Afghan Gold and Minerals Company (AGMC) and the reserve bidder was Silk Road Mining. The company hopes to have a pilot plant operational by the end of 2014 or 2015.